What now, indeed

What to do. I'm kind of all over the place. I've just printed my black metal article with the intent of editing it so that I can submit. My mind is also on all the innumerable albums and bands I still want to check out. That reminds me of Adorno's pessimistic vision of leisure as work -- ugh, the weight of being an aspiring music cognoscente weighs heavily on me! I discourage myself a lot when it comes to doing what I want to do. I would really like to put myself out there from a journalistic standpoint and see if I could get some freelance gigs. Concerts, album reviews, movies, etc. And funny enough, part of how I stifle myself is really fretting over what any of this work amounts to -- I read my fair share of cultural criticism, and I am especially interested in heavy metal shit. Leafing through Reynolds' dissection of postpunk, Rip it Up and Start Again, however, I got the somewhat queasy feeling that it's all a lot of scene showmanship, and entirely too dry at that. It's useful, to be sure; perhaps Reynolds' comments on DEVO just wounded my spudboy heart a little too much.

On the other end of the spectrum, I'd really like to commend Erick Lyle and SCAM! Magazine for putting out such a bad-ass chronicle of the inception, life, and death of Black Flag. I need to re-read it, but I devoured that thing as soon as a coworker brought it in a month or so ago. Critical without being cool-guy about it, it's just a good fuckin' read, and beyond talking only about Black Flag, it speaks more deeply to concerns about where scene and commerce meet, especially in an age where the marketing of subculture seems to have been perfected. (On that note, one could make the argument that recent trends toward some forms of self-sufficiency -- urban farming, purchasing local, etc. -- might be another attempt by people to opt out of that which is marketed to them, just as subcultures like punk and metal have been before.)

Which I suppose is what interested me about taking a critical eye toward heavy metal to begin with -- that the ongoing movements of a hardy musical and cultural form like heavy metal have real and lasting relevance as applies to issues in our world today. Plus, it doesn't hurt to be a helpless headbanger with a mind for analysis.

And so a lot of it is just fear that I don't know how to begin. But that's not true. It's fear that I won't know what to do when the next step comes, whatever that next step may be. Fear that I won't live up to someone else's idea of "authenticity," which is really just my own judgment. OK, over and out for now.

Awesome online skate shorts

This one hecka reminds me of the "Overground Broadcasting" clips I've seen, especially in that power-slide to tailslide double-angle. Awesome. Extra points for great music:

And these dudes can do no wrong:

Henry, this is your past self coming to you natural and live. It is November 1st. Here are the current ideas for costumes next year:

-Patrick Bateman: Walkman, plastic body suit over business suit, axe

-Half-and-half: make a carton costume, then put "I rule everything around you" on the front; cool Wu-Tang Creamery logo would work well; maybe a "Missing Persons" ad on the side for ODB or something

-The Unabomber: make it look like you're the actual police sketch

-Greendale College Human Being

-William Blake from "Dead Man"

-John Cusack from "Say Anything" -- build a set of arms attached to the coat so you can just walk around all night with the boombox over your head, but maintain use of your hands
-Iggy Pop
-Vincent Vega

That's all for now. I'm quite taken with the C.R.E.A.M. idea.

Political Kartoons for Kids!

So, I've been trying to incorporate my love of comedy and preponderance for funny ideas into my emerging political awareness. Just to give a background, my recent transfer to San Francisco State University has sort of forced me to consider myself in the context of politics, social justice, and civic responsibility. It's unnerving and exhilarating to open one's mind to ideas, histories, people, etc., that have been largely excluded from my learning up until this point. As I struggle to orient myself, I realize the necessity for fostering my own interests in tandem with this learning, so that it is a personal process and not simply a repetition of rhetoric and buzzwords whose meanings I don't fully understand.

Lengthy introduction aside, here's my first stab at a political cartoon. To put it in context, CA Gov. Schwarzenegger is attempting to cut another 1. 6 billion dollars from public worker compensation, even as oil extraction sales in California alone top $300 billion annually.

I am waiting...

The new Berrics match should be up by now... I don't have a bracket or anything but I'm calling Kelly Hart. Everybody else is backing P-Rod but I'm betting Kelly's got a deeper flatground game. Anyway, it'll be fun to watch two textbook flatground skaters battling.

Cult Classic

Still a huge favorite of mine. I feel like there was nowhere to go but down for PJ after this. He continues to be an amazing skater, but it's really not the same. This part had an unbeatable combination of factors. Firstly, no one knew who the fuck this kid was. Secondly, you could tell he bled skateboarding, from the ultra-thrashed Accels at the beginning, to the last hungry push at the close. Finally, he had that whole unabashed skate-nerd thing going, with some tricks in there that would certainly have looked stupid for most, but that seemed like simply another extension of his ridiculous talent and creativity on-board. Nowadays, all that little-kid hyperactivity is hiding somewhere in his plain-jane baggy jeans and fitted.

Like I said, it remains an all-time favorite, and maybe I shouldn't ruin it with words.

Something I've Been Watching A Lot

Just got a little Nina Simone collection from Amoeba as well. So very neat and unique.